If Ryan Sherman was looking for a role model in his favorite sport, he had slim pickings in the world of ice hockey.

“He had never seen an African-American hockey player,” said mom Kelli Brown-Sherman. “Had never even heard of one. But he learned of them in class.”

Class for the 11-year-old is Ice Hockey In Harlem (IHIH), a project aimed at mixing books with brawn in a quest to enhance young bodies and minds.

“It’s really geared to education. We’re more interested in that than making the next Wayne Gretzky,” said IHIH spokesman Craig Stanton.

“I like the classes more than the ice,” admitted Ryan, a sixth-grader in the Delta Honors program at Middle School 54 in Harlem. “You learn geography, the history of the game, and rules and regulations.”

Executive director Dee Reiber, who has a 70-person staff of volunteers serving as coaches, teachers and mentors, said, “We use hockey as a catalyst to explore other disciplines, such as math, science, geometry and geography.

“For instance, the Pups [age 4-6] have a vocabulary component to their program.”

Some 250 youths, ages 4 to 17, are in the program, which is in its 13th year and operates at five Harlem community centers on a $500,000 annual budget, Reiber said. An additional $1 million comes annually via in-kind services through corporations ranging from American Airlines to the New York Rangers.